


Shipping Wars

by BrilliantlyHorrid



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fandom Culture, Fluff, Meta, Nerdy af, Never tell me I'm not self aware, Please Forgive me, This is so ridiculous, so meta, superhero fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 05:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9534638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrilliantlyHorrid/pseuds/BrilliantlyHorrid
Summary: Inspired by one of the sneak peeks for tonight: Daisy gets a peek into fandom culture





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zauberer_sirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/gifts).



> This is so goofy, I'm sorry.

“What are you reading?” Daisy asked, sitting down at the table next to Sam. He was scrolling through his phone intently, but put it down when she returned. Raising an eyebrow, she handed him another beer.

“What? Nothing, just-- emails, stuff,” he said, sipping from the bottle. He had a nasty cut on his forehead, though he was still in much better shape than Billy. It had been a rough day for everyone.

“Uh huh,” she said, not believing him but letting it slide. She hadn’t forgotten the stuff he’d mentioned earlier, despite all the craziness of the day. _Is he reading it now?_

Daisy was no stranger to the Internet, obviously, but given everything they were dealing with, she didn’t have the time or inclination to read up on what people were saying about her. She was active online after the battle of New York, she had a decent idea what was going on.

“Most of it is tasteful,” Sam said, as if he could read her mind.

“I don’t even want to hear about it.” She sent him a warning look, but her eyes moved to his phone. “Who else?”

Sam looked at her curiously, but Daisy didn’t want to say it so she just rolled her eyes. “Who else-- _oh_ , you mean who else do people--yeah,” he said, turning in his seat to look at her more fully. She should probably be concerned about how eager he was to talk about this, but after they day they’d had she was feeling pretty fond of the guy. “Well, Romanoff is kind of the big one, but a few of the other Avengers are popular too.”

“Thor?” Daisy asked, and Sam shrugged.

“People kind of have forgotten about Thor lately, no one knows where he’s been.”

_Who could forget about Thor?_

“Cap is another one, you kind of have the whole ‘stand up for the little guy’ thing going on,” Sam continued, and Daisy raised her eyebrows, thinking of all the Captain America paraphernalia she’d seen in Coulson’s office. How big a Cap fan was he exactly?

“You know, some people have started shipping you two,” Sam said, conspiratorially, snapping Daisy out of her train of thought. She looked to where he was gesturing, frowning slightly when she saw Jeff entering the room. “All the press conferences and of course that first newspaper photo of you guys holding hands.”

“Shaking hands,” Daisy objected, still looking at the director as he approached Coulson and Mack across the room.

“Right, yeah,” Sam said, continuing on. “It’s kind of _controversial_ though. He’s older than you, technically your boss. There are some theories he’s your dad which is just totally crazy,” Sam said, chuckling. He stopped, looking at her awkwardly. “He’s...he’s not your dad, is he?”

“What? No,” Daisy told him, shaking her head. “Sam, you _met_ my dad, all of you did.” Daisy wasn’t really sure how anyone could forget Cal either.

“Right, yeah. Cool, cool,” Sam said, picking up his phone again. Possibly to look at his Quake/Director Mace blog, if this conversation was any indication.

“Let’s just-- just drink your beer,” Daisy said, putting her hand on his phone until it was back on the table. Smiling abashedly, Sam nodded.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said.

“How are we doing, gang?”

_Oh please not now._

Daisy and Sam looked up to see a very tired looking Mace standing next to their table, Coulson behind him. _Speaking of rough days…_

“Hey,” Daisy said, and Sam waved stiffly.

“Hell-o, director,” he called, none-too-subtly looking between the two of them. Everyone looked at him strangely. “I’m just going to go now,” Sam said. “Agent Coulson,” he acknowledged, then looked at Daisy and Mace, with a look Daisy did _not_ like. “ _Quaketriot.”_

Exiting the room quickly, Sam left the three of them. Two very confused, and one very embarrassed.

“What’s--”

“ _Just--_ don’t Google it.”

* * *

She googled it. Of course she did, how could she _not?_ She and Mace weren’t the most popular pairing, that went to her and Black Widow--whom she had never met-- and was sure enough followed by CaptainQuake, aka her and Cap. Whom she had _also_ never met. But one thing she and Mace had going for them were public appearances, of which there were many. And more every day.

Smiling stiffly, she listened to Mace as he went through his usual spiel. SHIELD is here to help, Agent Johnson was on their side all along, Inhumans are our friends. Every compliment and smile thrown Daisy’s way made her deeply aware of how many eyes were on them, how many cameras were flashing, and how many posts would be online later tagged enthusiastically.

It was weird, definitely, especially since it was _Jeff_ , but while the overall idea was strange, it did show her that she had a _very_ loyal following. Which, not the most important thing right now, but thanks to some of the more enthusiastic folks, criticism of her rarely went un-addressed. And if pro-Quake led to pro-Inhuman...

“Everything okay?”

Daisy looked to her left, where Coulson had moved to her side. He’d angled himself so his face was away from the crowd. The gathering at this town hall was one of the smaller audiences, but the news coverage was in full force. She nodded, giving him a tight lipped smile. How could she explain, really? Coulson just nodded back, and even with the aviators that have been ever-present lately, the look he gave her was comforting.

This was just part of the job now, and people were going to say and write and _draw_ whatever they were going to say and write and draw. Hearing Mace start to ramp up the _Agent Johnson_ talk, which was her cue to get ready  to address the crowd, Daisy braced herself. Passing behind her, presumably to scope out the perimeter, Coulson placed a warm hand on her back before disappearing into the background. Daisy smiled gratefully, trying to convert that into a somewhat genuine smile as Mace introduced her.

* * *

“What are you reading?”

Daisy looked up, and locked her tablet. “Hm?”

Coulson looked at her strangely, and it was no wonder. She was acting like she’d been caught watching porn, which--

She was _skimming_.

Sensing that Coulson wasn’t going to buy whatever excuse she was going to make (and looking around the common room to make sure there were no Koenigs in sight) Daisy sighed. “Apparently people have been writing things about me, about Quake.”

Coulson frowned, sitting on the couch next to her. “Negative things?”

Daisy tilted her head. “Not exactly.” If possible, Coulson looked more confused. “So...how do I explain this? When you were Googling Captain America--”

“Where is this going?”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Did you ever see speculation about Cap and one of the other Avengers like, hooking up?” Now Coulson rolled his eyes. “I take it that’s a yes.”

Coulson nodded, leaning back on the couch. “Sure, these days it’s bound to happen with public...” He caught on. “People are writing--”

“Yup.”

“About you.”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s…”

“You know it,” Daisy sighed, bringing up a more general page on her screen. “I promise I'm not reading it out of narcissism, just...morbid curiosity. Would you believe they’re actually writing about me and Mace?” Maybe if she could laugh about it with Coulson, she could brush it off. It was just par for the course he said, right?

“Really?” Coulson asked, a pronounced frown forming on his face. Daisy was beginning to suspect they wouldn’t be laughing about this after all. “ _Mace_? Isn’t he a little old for you?”

That’s what he was going to get hung up on? “He’s not that old,” she argued, bringing up a picture of the two of them at a recent event. Coulson leaned over to look at it, frown not budging. “I mean, I’m not into him or anything but it’s not like it’s any less realistic than me or Romanoff, or Captain America. Which is also a thing. A popular thing.”

Coulson’s eyes widened significantly. “Yup, me and your hero, sorry about that Phil,” she said, bringing up a list of blogs and hashtags. “Cap, Falcon, that guy in Hell’s Kitchen, and, oh this is new,” she muttered, clicking on a link. _That’s odd._ “Who’s Agent 41?”

Still looking a bit perturbed, Coulson leaned back to look at the screen. “I don’t know anyone with that designation,” he said. “Why?”

“Beecause,” Daisy said, tilting her screen toward him. “There are suddenly like 50 posts about me and _Agent 41_ from the past couple days. There’s a whole thread about him on Reddit.” Clicking on said thread, Daisy read the posts.

_-OMG who was that guy, do we have a name??-_

_-I think I’ve seen him before, has he been there the entire time?-_

_-He’s kind of hot O_o-_

_-Lol how can you even tell?-_

_-I've totally seen him before!-_

“Who are they talking about?” Daisy asked, before reading a summary for a story linked in the thread. _Already?_ “Oh my god.” She looked up. “They're talking about you.”

Coulson made an odd noise at that, something between a scoff and laugh. “Very funny.”

Daisy shook her head, turning the tablet to him. “See? It’s totally talking about you. The sunglasses, the suits--”

“The--” he read a little further down the page. “‘ _Strong arms_ ’ and ‘ _sexy smirk?_ ’ Oh please.”

Daisy was kind of baffled. Coulson sounded so confident that couldn’t possibly be about him, but those seemed kind of spot on, if she was being honest.

Did Coulson not think he was hot? Like, maybe she wouldn’t have put it into words quite like that before, but all the parts--pun not really intended-- were there.

“They’re probably talking about Mack,” Coulson posited, before shaking his head. “All of this is ridiculous.”

While Daisy agreed, those traits definitely also applied to Mack, she kept scrolling. 

_-Look at the way she’s looking at him tho-_

“Oh hey, like someone attached a picture,” Daisy noted, opening the image. “Well that’s--”

_The back of Coulson’s head._

“Interesting.”

Next to her Coulson was inscrutable, and taking his time examining the photo. Deciding to take the original poster’s advice, she looked at the way she was looking at him. She was smiling, but she always tried to smile during these things. _It’s different though_ . She was definitely smiling _at Coulson_.

“This is a problem,” Coulson said, drawing her attention back to him.

“It is?” It didn’t really look like a problem. It was a little embarrassing maybe, because her face in that photo was kind of _revealing_ , a little sappier than she would have liked. But it wasn’t that bad, was it?

Coulson nodded, all business. “I’m supposed to be dead. The only reason I’ve been attending these things is because I can stay in the background.”

_Okay, ouch._

“Well, you have your sunglasses on, and we can’t even see your face, really, unless you’re worried about people recognizing your...back.” Daisy said, closing the picture. There was another one posted below, with the accompanying caption “ _did you see this???”_ Daisy clicked on it, and the image of Coulson passing behind her, hand on her lower back, popped up. _Shit_. Along with another very obvious look of _maybe certain feelings_ on her face, there was a clear shot of Coulson’s profile.

“Can you find a way to take those down?” He asked, standing up from the couch.

Daisy looked up at him incredulously. “I mean, yeah, probably.” Come on, didn’t it amuse him even a little bit? Sure, the whole ‘being shipped’ concept was kind of creepy, but it could be worse. It wasn’t like they had to acknowledge it to anyone else, they could just talk about it, you know, amongst themselves. The two of them. “Is that all you’re taking away from this?” _Like not the fact that there’s a whole string of posts about us together?_

_And maybe I really wouldn’t mind your hand being there again?_

“That my identity might be compromised and people who think I’ve been dead for the past five years could, at any moment, see me attending a SHIELD hosted press event?” His voice was flat, and he was doing that thing where he was meeting her eyes but not _really_ looking at her. “What do you suggest I focus on, Daisy?”

Holding her hands up in an ‘I surrender’ motion, Daisy sighed. “Fine, point taken,” she said, returning to her tablet. From the corner of her eye, she saw Coulson still standing there. “I’m closing it, see?” She held up the screen for him, so he could watch her close the thread if he had to. “I didn’t mean to creep you out.”

Coulson let out an exasperated sigh. “You didn’t _creep me out_ ,” he said, sitting back down. “Well, this kind of creeps me out,” he admitted, gesturing to her tablet. “But that’s not your fault. Doesn’t it bother you?”

Daisy frowned. “People thinking we’re dating? Not really. I mean, it makes more sense than _Iron Man._ ”

Coulson looked at her like she was an alien. Well, like a person who hadn’t already met aliens would look at an alien. “I meant in _general_ , does all of it bother you, not just…that doesn’t bother you?”  

“Should it?” She asked him, like she hadn’t just really begun to consider _them_ before that moment. Absently she began to scroll through the posts again before finding a drawing of the two of them, this time with him smiling back at her. “I mean, tell me we’re not kind of cute.”

Looking at the picture, Coulson shook his head. “That doesn’t even _look_ like me.”

“What do you mean?” It looked fine to Daisy, maybe the hair wasn’t totally right, but she could definitely see it.

“Look at the chin.”

“That’s _your chin._ ” Daisy wasn’t seeing the issue here. Apart from the overarching weirdness that she was kind of desensitized to at this point.

“Looks more like Jeff to me,” Coulson muttered, and Daisy started to get the picture.

“Coulson,” she said, tilting her head until he looked at her. “You know you’re like, kind of hot, right?” Okay the _kind of_ was a bit mean, but she didn’t want to send him running.

“Yeah, okay,” Coulson scoffed, but she knew his faces. He was a _little_ bit pleased. At least.

“You _are_ , otherwise do you think there would be--” She did a quick count. “Six separate stories about the two of us--” She waggled her eyebrows. 

“ _Six?_ ”

“Since Friday.”

“Jeez,” he sighed, sinking further into the couch. He looked over at Daisy. “I’m _really_ sorry about this,” he said. “Not just me, but the whole thing. That’s not what people should be talking about.”

Daisy tucked her feet under her, facing him more fully. “I guess, but all of it’s weird, really. Seeing people talk about me being this flawless hero, like I can do no wrong. I have a harder time dealing with that than the negative stuff almost.”

“Daisy,” Coulson said, looking at her funny. “You know you’re _kind of_ a flawless hero, right?”

“Her har.” Tilting her head slightly, Daisy considered him.

Looking a little uncomfortable under her scrutiny, Coulson shifted awkwardly. “What?”

“Nothing,” Daisy said, “I’m just wondering if all those people have any idea how corny you are. While the hotness is definitely on point, they all seem to think you’re this stoic, hard to read super spy.”

“Hey,” he argue. “I’m stoic.”

Daisy raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really,” Coulson said, straightening up a bit.

“Hmm,” Daisy hummed, scooting closer to him and putting an arm behind his neck on the back of the couch. Coulson gulped. “Oh yeah, super stoic,” Daisy murmured, leaning in closer. She could feel his breath on her lips when a crashing noise from the doorway startled them both.

“Oh, wow,” Sam said, standing over a shattered coffee mug. “I-- _wow,_ that is not what I was expecting.” He covered his eyes. “Sorry!”

“Sam why are you _covering your eyes?_ ” 

“Right, yeah, sorry,” he said, removing his hands his eyes and looking at the mess he’d left on the floor. He looked at Coulson, who had mustered all the dignity he had into a stern face for the other agent. “I’m just going to...broom,” Sam said, pointing at the pieces of glass and practically bolting out of the door.

The room was silent after he left. Tentatively, Daisy started to lean in again and thankfully Coulson got the message, meeting her halfway. It was as intimate and warm and slow as a kiss could be when you were expecting an interruption at any second, but it promised _more_ , which Daisy was looking forward to.

Running a hand down her back, Coulson sighed. “That’s probably going to end up on his Tumble, isn’t it?”

Worried it would be too mean to correct him--he _tried--_ Daisy just chuckled and shook her head. Deciding to take advantage of however much time they had left, she tugged him closer by the superhero chin and pressed her lips to the side of his mouth. “I’ll take care of it.”


End file.
